


petrichor

by citrusyuz



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Car Accidents, Did I say angst?, Ghosts, Kim Seungmin-centric, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Post-Idol, ill add more tags as they appear, this is an actual au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:21:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26928064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/citrusyuz/pseuds/citrusyuz
Summary: seungmin's solo career fell though when he realized he couldn't preform alone on stage meant for eight and to a crowd that's followed from his happiest moments to the darkest of his days.---alternatively, stray kids disband after an accident, years later, an old friend seeks out seungmin and he finally comes to term with the bones in his closet.
Relationships: Hwang Hyunjin/Kim Seungmin, Hwang Hyunjin/Kim Seungmin/Yang Jeongin | I.N, Hwang Hyunjin/Yang Jeongin | I.N, Kim Seungmin/Yang Jeongin | I.N
Comments: 3
Kudos: 16





	petrichor

Seungmin squeezes into the front seat, a grin stretched across his cheeks, slamming the door shut before Hyunjin can reach in and drag him out. 

Seungmin flicks the lock and sticks out his tongue, jeering at the other. 

Hyunjin smacks the window and Seungmin rolls it down just low enough that Hyunjin’s voice will carry but high enough that he can't pry his way in the vehicle with his grubby chip covered hands. 

“Minnieeeeeee” Hyunjin pouts. “I wanted to ride in the front!”

Seungmin cackles. “Ha! I got here first-- better luck next time.” 

Hyunjin shakes his shoulders in the way he’s copied from Changbin and the dumb dramas they watch together.

“Sungminnnnnn,” He makes that kicked puppy face that brings everyone that isn’t Seungmin to their knees. “You said I could sit in the front todayyyyyy.”

“I didn’t say in which van.” Seungmin reclines his seat, grinning like he’d just won the lottery.

Hyunjin scrunches up his nose. “I hate you.”

“You can go kick Felix from his spot!” 

Hyunjin makes a face. “Felix said he doesn’t want to be in the live thoughhhhhh and everyone else already took their seats.” 

He points at the other van where Jeongin has stuck his head out of the door. 

“Nope! I don’t wanna be in the live today~” Seungmin chuckles. “I’ll let you ride tomorrow.” 

“You’re the worst. A meanie” Hyunjin pouts again before turning around to stalk off to the first van. 

Seungmin cackles again. “I’m your favorite.”

“I hate you,” Hyunjin says without a bite, “You better watch your back when we get back to the dorm!” 

Seungmin gawfs at the empty threat. 

“Psh, as if you could even catch me.” He mutters and moves to reorient himself in his seat. 

Chan pokes his head out from behind him. 

“You guys act like preschoolers,” He mutters, “Yuta’s gonna chew you two out later for taking so long.”

Seungmin sets his phone on the dashboard. 

“It’s fine. I’m his favorite-- he’d never tell on me,” Seungmin says, “And, it’s not like we have anywhere to be today.” 

“You’re delusional if you think you’re Yuta’s favorite.” Minho chimes in leaning forward a bit to join the conversation. 

“Oh, I am most definitely.” Seungmin snorts.

Chan rolls his eyes. “This is exactly what I meant when I said you act like a three year old.”

Minho scrunches up his nose. “I don’t act like a three year old.”

“I wasn’t talking about you, Minho.” Chan sighs and leans back in his seat. 

Minho does the same, pulling his belt across his body. “Good.” he turns up his nose. 

“My statement still stands.” Seungmin rolls up his window all the way and turns to watch as Taeyong opens the driver seat door. 

“Is everyone here?” The manager asks, looking more stressed than usual. Johnny, long-legged and all, crawls over Minho’s legs and to the back row where Chanbin is comfortably covered in blankets. 

“Yeah,” they all chime, with the exception of Changbin who has already fallen asleep. 

Taeyong nods and climbs into the driver seat. “Okay, Yuta just needs to set up the live and then we’ll all be on the way.” 

“Why can’t we just go ahead?” Seungmin asks, picking up his phone to send a mean text to the 00 group chat. 

Taeyong shakes his head and rests his arm on the wheel. “Yuta has the navigation set up already.” 

“Oh,” Seungmin says, “Can’t we just set it up ourselves?”

Taeyong sighs, “We can, but it’ll take about as long as them setting up the live.”

“Oh,” Seungmin says dumbly.

“And,” Taeyong continues, “You don’t like doing the navigating anyways; You should’ve just let Hyunjin take shotgun.”

“Points have been made,” Seungmin pouts. “But you’re so mean-- you could have been nicer about it.”

Taeyong playfully rolls his eyes and starts the van as the vehicle in front of them lights up. “I think they're ready.” 

And then they’re off, rolling across gravel roads heading back home from filming. 

The car falls into a comfortable quiet as Minho turns his attention back to his drama and Chan and Johnny discuss tomorrow's schedule. 

Seungmin considers sending another text to the boys but decides against it, instead opening the V-APP to monitor the live as it airs. 

Hyunjin, Jisung, and Jeongin are in the shot and Seungmin assumes Felix is in the front seat taking a nap. 

They’re having fun, giggling about incomprehensible things and he lets their voices lull him as they finally reach the main roads from the filming site. 

Time passes quickly like this-- just Seungmin and the voices of the people he loves in his ears as he feels the weight of sleepiness set in. 

They’ve been busy recently, visiting site after site for pre-recordings. 

The comeback is a little over three weeks away and their schedule has been jammed packed. The respite this evening would be the first in the last two weeks and all the members have been looking forward to it. 

Seungmin’s excited about the comeback, but he quite honestly misses when there was enough time in the day to laze around doing nothing without risking a bit of his own sleep and sanity.

“Wah!” Jisung’s voice rings in his ears, startling Seungmin just a small bit. 

He jolts just the slightest amount, the sleep ripped from his grasps. The window is cold against his ears and he turns when a flurry of white flashes in the corner of his vision. 

“It’s snowing!” Felix says and Seungmin realized he’d been wrong about the elder’s current activities.

Seungmin takes a peak at his phone screen where the camera pans from Hyunjin, Jeongin, and Jisung to outside the windows where trees pass in a blur of greens, blacks, and whites. 

The audio spikes as everyone starts excitedly speaking over one another other, their voices overlapping. 

Seungmin inwardly smiles and he lets himself nod off again to the sound of Jisung, Hyunjin, Jeongin, and Felix’s banter. 

Seungmin is about to drift completely off when a loud screeching noise rings in his ears. He scrunches up his nose, thinking it’s another pesky audio issue, peaking an eye open to check on the live. 

Then, reds, slivers, and blacks flash in his vision and the screeching becomes unbearable and, distantly, Seungmin realizes that the sound was very much not from his earbuds.

One moment, the black van that’s been a steady presence is there, in front of them, making good progress across quiet roads, and then the next, a massive semi intersects their path, slicing through the greens and whites like a bloodied knife, the squealing of tires following.

Seungmin can only watch as time seems to slow and the vehicle in front-- the one carrying his best friends, family, soulmates, and everything more and inbetween-- flies over the edge.

It’s almost as if the clunky low lying fence haphazardly drilled into the road hadn’t even been there at all, with how they broke past the barrier so easily.

He can feel a scream bubble in his chest as the van descends down the incline in rolls, crashing into sapling and the underbrush with each over turn.

And then, Taeyong is braking and turning at the same time, his eyes wide and knuckles pale. 

The van is letting out a sound that distinctly resembles the scraping of a chalkboard and Seungmin can only brace himself against his seat as the van's left side impacts the truck’s metals with a loud crash. 

He feels himself jolt, his head swinging and then ramming smack into the window. 

Then, quiet. 

Seungmin’s head rings, and he blinks, his eyes readjusting to the light. He can taste iron in his mouth and a sharp cutting pain against his shoulder.

Then, in his ears, he hears screaming. It's loud, terrified, and sounds eerily familiar. 

God his head hurts.

Then there’s a sound, one that resembles the cracking of a hammer against glass. 

Then more screaming, crashing, and then…

Quiet. 

He can hear the ringing in his head, but what has once been earsplitting screaming in his ear has all but disappeared. 

Seungmin releases his iron grip on his phone, heart dropping to his toes as realization sets in. 

He’s afraid of what he’ll see if he looks down at the screen where the live had been playing seconds before, but not knowing scares him even more. 

Timidly, he turns his gaze from the gap in the fence before him and instead towards the phone that digs into his palms. 

The sight that stares up at him runs his blood cold as ice. 

Jisung is blurry, but the unmistakable bleach blonde of his hair from this comeback is enough indication of his identity. 

The startling part though, is that he’s just  _ there _ , half hanging from his seatbelt, half resting against what appears to be the roof of the van. 

And the thing that terrifies Seungmin the most is the white of the plain t-shirt Jisung had stolen from Seungmin is covered in a red. 

_ red. _

**_red._ **

**_r e d ._ **

Different from the velvet color of the v-live heart.

It's a deeper scarlet, something darker.

Something chilling.

A type of red that Seungmin never thought blood would be.

God his head hurts. 

Then the comments explode. 

And Seungmin’s vision fades to dark.

**Author's Note:**

> i don't know how far ill get with this fic, but comments and kudos make my day and always encourage me when i'm writing :D


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